On Media

Krauthammer: Obama caused GOP civil war

By DYLAN BYERS

12/28/2012 01:14 PM EST

Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer believes President Barack Obama has used the fiscal cliff to start an "internal civil war" among House Republicans.

"He’s been using [the fiscal cliff talks] — and I must say with great skill, and ruthless skill and success — to fracture and basically shatter the Republican opposition," Krauthammer told Fox News host Sean Hannity. "The only redoubt of the opposition is the House. And his objective from the very beginning was to break the will of the Republicans in the House, and to create an internal civil war. And he’s done that.”

"How did he do it? By always insisting from Day One after the election that Republicans had to raise rates," Krauthammer said.

The so-called GOP civil war actually long predates the fiscal cliff negotiations; if anything, Obama's call for higher tax rates exposed — or exploited, if you share Krauthammer's interpretation — those rifts.